gbaji wrote:
It's a government run health care program. It has a poor record of diagnosis times. Where else should we be looking?
Provide proof that the diagnosis is a direct result of the health care program being government run. This should be simple.
gbaji wrote:
Infant tumors: 3 months.
Cancer in teens: 4 months.
Articles made it clear that doctors were having trouble relating the symptoms to anything.
gbaji wrote:
Arthritis: 9 months.
Article flat out started that this is because the vast majority of patients wait to go to their doctor, and then there's the typical amount of time required to ensure that it is arthritis.
gbaji wrote:
Genetic breast cancer tests: 2 years.
Article was three years old and addressing (as paulsol already pointed out!) relatively new testing processes.
Here's a bunch of much better conclusions:
1) In the UK, people are more comfortable with going to the doctor because of mild symptoms. This is why it's taking so long to diagnose cancer - going to the doctor and saying "my side hurts and I feel nauseous a lot" isn't exactly very indicative of anything. In the U.S., people would have to wait until they are far more ill, and therefore increase the chance of death. This, however, makes the cancer easier to diagnose, so we'll probably look better on paper because of that.
2) People, however, don't feel the need to rush to the doctor at the sign of the slightest problem. That's a concern that has been constantly brought up. It's just not true considering 50-75% of people wait three months to see the doctor about possible arthritis.
3) As Paulsol already pointed out, the UK is able to eventually make cutting edge technology available to all their citizens. In the U.S., this would most likely cause an insurance snafu.
gbaji wrote:
You kinda lose the right to demand I provide "proof" and "cites" if you refuse to read the links I provide.
I did, sweetheart. They don't prove your statements.
Still waiting for a citation that people will happily move internationally to make more money. Or did you ignore that because you have no proof?
Edited, Aug 25th 2009 10:13pm by CBD